Treadmill Talk

After weeks of serious heat and humidity (at least for someone who is used to San Diego weather), yesterday it was suddenly cool, crisp, and breezy outside and after a week of not-so-great runs and having absolutely no desire to run in general, I actually had the urge to go for a run. I didn’t give myself any time to have a second thought, just threw on some running gear and got outside.

I ran a nice and easy 4 miles. I couldn’t believe how great it felt to just have a good easy run. It. was. awesome. I have seriously underestimated how much the heat really impacts the intensity of runs.

After the run I had a huge Green smoothie. Probably the first one in months.

The Combo:

3/4 cup milk

1 scoop vanilla whey powder

1 large scoop cocoa powder

1 banana

copious amounts of spinach

a sprinkle of cinnamon

3 ice cubes

It didn’t have the normal icey smoothie texture but it was super thick and creamy and exactly what I needed. Awesome.

On to Today.

I thought for sure once the cool weather hit I’d be running to the oatmeal for warm cinnamon filled breakfasts… but it just hasn’t happened yet. Ok, well the weather literally just started to get cool yesterday, so theres really plenty of time. For now, all I seem to want is protein.

I’ve had the same thing for breakfast for the past couple of days: Sandwich thin with an egg, an egg white, 2 slices of canadian bacon, and some cheese.

With prunes of the side to get in some fruit action, and because I’m just on a prune kick.

On to Treadmill Talk.

I feel like I’ve got a pretty good relationship with the treadmill. When I started running regularly about 2 years ago I was in Rhode Island in February and lets face it, I’m a totally pansy when it comes to the cold, so all of my running was done inside on the treadmill. I guess you could say I bonded with the t-mill. Really, theres a lot to love about it, its there for you in case of bad weather, its reliable when its dark or maybe unsafe outside, you can’t get lost on it, and sometimes it even provides you a TV to watch while you workout.

There are days that I dread the t-mill, but it doesn’t really happen any more often than the days I just simply don’t want to run outside either, actually it probably happens less often. Up until yesterday I had only done two runs since the myrtle beach half marathon over a week ago. I was tired and it had been super hot outside so I took both runs inside to the treadmill.

The first run was really hard. The plan was an easy 3 miles, I set the pace nice and low and then struggled the entire run. I chalked it up to still being tired from the race, did some really easy cardio for the rest of the week and tried again on Monday. This time the plan was to do some intervals, but still at a pretty easy pace. I got through the first couple alright, but once the pace started to climb things went downhill fast. I stopped and told Navyguy what was going. He said he had had a really similar experience and suggested switching treadmills. I took his advice, switched to a different machine, and finished the run strong with energy to spare.

I’ve honestly never second guessed the accuracy of a treadmill before but after both of us having the same experience I’m convinced that the pace on these treadmills is definitely not right, or at least slightly off. I know it probably shouldn’t be a big deal, but it’s kind of driving me crazy.